Rough Riders

The last of the 27,000 soldiers who stormed up San Juan Hill with Col. Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders was buried Monday with full military honors. Ralph Waldo Taylor was 105 when he died of a stroke Friday at North Broward Medical Center in Pompano Beach. Taylor lied about his age when he was 16 and enlisted in the New York National Guard in 1898 to "get out and do something."

The 79th edition of the East L.A. Classic kicks off 30 minutes from now and Garfield would like nothing better than to crash Roosevelt's homecoming party by dealing the Rough Riders their seventh defeat in the last nine meetings of a rivalry dating all the way back to 1925. Garfield (5-3, 4-0) leads the Eastern League, but if Roosevelt (7-1, 3-1) prevails it will move into a first-place tie with one regular season game remaining for both schools. The Bulldogs won the JV game 41-12 and East Los Angeles College is filling rapidly in anticipation of the City Section's most storied grudge match.

There are several new specials airing this weekend, running the gamut from documentaries to a '70s musical flashback. The Learning Channel's "TWA Flight 800," tonight at 7 and 10, offers a comprehensive look at the explosion and crash of the Boeing 747 a year ago today off the coast of Long Island and the continuing investigation. A&E's "Investigative Reports: Untying the Straitjacket," Saturday at 6 and 10 p.m., travels inside two of the country's highest-security mental hospitals.

Ty'Jon Delancy ran for 119 yards and two touchdowns and Garfield earned bragging rights over neighbohood rival Roosevelt with a 22-6 victory in the 79th East LA Classic game at East Los Angeles College. The Bulldogs (6-3, 5-0) remained unbeaten in the Eastern League and beat their archrivals for the seventh time in the last nine meetings. Roosevelt (7-2, 3-2) still leads the overall series. David Arriaga's one-yard keeper pulled the Rough Riders to within 12-6 in the third quarter, but Aaron Rocha's field goal put Garfield ahad by two scores and defensive lineman Eri Velasquez scored on a 35-yard interception return to ice the victory.

November 17, 1989 | PATRICK MOTT, Patrick Mott is a regular contributor to Orange County Life

It sounds--abstractly, at least--like a prescription for utter chaos: A pack of six or eight mostly fearless riders doggedly spurring their fast, agile mounts inside a ring at ferocious gallops, windmilling away at a bouncing ball with what look like elongated 3-woods. Horses frothing, nostrils flaring, sweat flying everywhere. But, say those enthusiasts who spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars pursuing what they call this most addictive of sports, polo is a fine madness.

Suspended USC tailback Shawn Walters could sign soon with the Ottawa Rough Riders, Canadian Football League sources said Thursday. Walters, a junior suspended Sept. 28, is under NCAA and Pacific 10 investigation for allegedly accepting $15,900 in cash and gifts from agent Robert Troy Caron. The CFL has no player draft. Teams instead maintain 35-player lists for negotiating rights and the Rough Riders are expected to soon put Walters on their list.

Led by brothers Paul, 31, and David Simon, 35, of Fallbrook, the Rough Riders' off-road racing team won four of the top five finishing positions in the 25th Baja 1000 race Friday. Hundreds were out to greet them at 1:31 a.m. when the Simons drove their heavily modified unlimited class Ford F-150 pickup across the line as overall winners among a record number of 197 four-wheel vehicles and 132 motorcycles.

Swift and silent, a mountain bicycle can carry a nature lover into pristine environments otherwise accessible only to hikers and horses. And, boy, do the hikers and horses hate it. Lew Roeser, who runs a pack horse station out of Mammoth Lakes, said: "One of our guides met a bike coming down the trail and almost went over the edge. They're not compatible with horses." Another packer, Bob Tanner, said: "They're dangerous with horses around because they're so quiet. They just roar up on you.

Rodeos are like stock car races: It's the possibility of a crackup that fills the stands. With a full slate of bull riding--a misnomer if ever there was one--and bucking broncs, there should be plenty to rivet fans at Frontier 101's annual Cowboys of Color Invitational Rodeo. After all, the best cowboys only last eight seconds. The father-and-son team of Hugh and Denny Pickett have been putting on rodeos since 1988, but it's in their blood.

Flashback to February. The Ottawa Rough Riders hire Ron Smeltzer as coach. The news didn't exactly send shock waves through the Canadian Football League. Nor did it whip Rough Rider fans into a frenzy. About the most positive statement made was a collective, "Ron Who?" The negative side, on the other hand, brought some rather blunt real estate advice. "I did a speaking engagement after I got hired," Smeltzer said.

This is the week Los Angeles Roosevelt and Los Angeles Garfield alumni look forward to all season. On Friday night at East Los Angeles College, the two schools will play football in the East L.A. Classic. More than 20,000 passionate fans will show up. On Sunday, Roosevelt Coach Javier Cid said, "It's already started. " He was referring to the build up that has gotten only bigger because of social media. The Roosevelt Facebook and Garfield Facebook pages will be heating up. Garfield is 5-3 and 4-0 in the Eastern League.

Re "Give students A+ in hacking," Sept. 25 It amazes me that the L.A. Unified School District officials in charge of purchasing Apple iPads for students apparently did not foresee the security problems they would have in letting students take the tablets home. Perhaps the people at Apple, who will sell hundreds of millions of dollars worth of iPads to L.A. Unified, should have been more upfront about the hacking possibilities that would allow students to use the tablets in ways the district didn't intend.

Orvis, the Vermont-based upscale outfitters of the outdoorsy set, has rolled out a Theodore Roosevelt-themed roundup of apparel and accessories that will send 5% of sales to the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. It consists of just 10 pieces (one of which is Douglas Brinkley's book "The Wilderness Warrior") including a pair of vintage twill miner's pants ($139), a leather vest (with buffalo-nickel snaps, $350), a poplin shirt (tailored, according to the company's website, in the style of those worn by TR's Rough Riders, $98)

It's time for the annual East Los Angeles Classic matching Garfield against Roosevelt on Friday night at East Los Angeles College. And much attention will be on Roosevelt's versatile Gilbert Herrera. Herrera has led the Rough Riders to an 8-1 record and 5-0 mark in the Eastern League. Last week, he was chosen homecoming king. This week, he's dealing with all the distractions that come with "Spirit Week. " There's "Superhero Day" on Tuesday. "I'm wearing a Batman T-shirt," Herrera said.

In 1908, a travel guide described Camp Roosevelt in Yellowstone National Park as a place that offered "the pleasures of the outdoor life with the little inconveniences reduced to a minimum." More than a century later, our family of four certainly found this to be true of the same site, which today is known as Roosevelt Lodge. Perhaps we were most grateful for the simple way our Roughrider cabin — so named for its minimalist comforts, consisting of four hard walls, two double beds, electricity, minimal heat and no bathroom — successfully kept out the inconvenience of a black bear roaming between the various cabins at night.

IF you really want to hear about it, Josh Homme, creative mastermind behind the heavy metal group Queens of the Stone Age, will tell you about his temper -- about the three separate court-ordered sessions of anger management classes he had to take and their effect on his life. "I learned nothing through anger management," Homme said flatly, seated earlier this month in a tequila bottle-strewn North Hollywood rehearsal studio that reeked of stale marijuana.

It's time for the annual East Los Angeles Classic matching Garfield against Roosevelt on Friday night at East Los Angeles College. And much attention will be on Roosevelt's versatile Gilbert Herrera. Herrera has led the Rough Riders to an 8-1 record and 5-0 mark in the Eastern League. Last week, he was chosen homecoming king. This week, he's dealing with all the distractions that come with "Spirit Week. " There's "Superhero Day" on Tuesday. "I'm wearing a Batman T-shirt," Herrera said.

vs. Long Island Rough Riders * 4:30 today Site--Hofstra Stadium, Uniondale, N.Y. Records--Zodiac 12-8, Rough Riders 9-8 Record vs. Rough Riders--1-0 Update--The Zodiac defeated the Rough Riders, 1-0, on a late goal by forward Gustavo Leal at UC Irvine in the second game of the season. The Zodiac broke a two-game losing streak Thursday at Mission Viejo High with a 2-1 victory over U.S. Pro Select on a goal by midfielder Brad Wilson.

President Theodore Roosevelt may be long gone, but his words still pack a punch in Riverside County. The Anti-Defamation League and a Christian attorney from Temecula are locked in a legal fight over a Roosevelt quote carved into a mahogany wall of the historic County Courthouse. The passage -- "The true Christian is the true citizen" -- is one of four presidential quotes engraved on the walls of a courtroom primarily used to hear civil cases.

It's hardly a secret that most actresses who ride motorcycles in the movies are really just pretending. Take the new flick "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle." Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, Cameron Diaz -- all appear to catch major air on their dirt bikes during a gravity-defying motocross sequence. In reality, the trio in tight leather never turned over their ignitions. It wasn't Barrymore flying high over her handlebars or Diaz eating dust.